Demiak is the pseudonym of Maarten Demmink. From his early to his most recent works, his art oscillates from heavenly to post-apocalyptic pictures or objects in different mediums: paintings, mural wood sculptures, mixed media and staged photographs.

The excess of nature and our relation to the consequences of these violences are the base of his work organized in different series. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 has inspired him docufiction photographs called “The Deepwater horizon”. Paintings looking like damaged vintage photographs, “The Big Blow" lists some major natural disasters through the ages. Inspired by the Deep South, "Memoirs of Loss" is focused on ravaged houses, like an echo to a series of small sculptures made in modest materials: pictures of anonymous villas or cabins, evocations of what man builds and weeps over when nature destroys. "Escapism" consists of a superposition of two opposite pictures: real war or refugees scenes, ironically covered by calm local landscapes.

Demiak revisits the genre of landscape and historical painting in the light of his contemporary concerns about environmentalism. Without sensationalism, he prefers to use small formats, more intimate and favorable to reflection. Deeply Flemish, atmospheric and realistic, his powerful "vedute" offer a fascinating reflection on nature and our future, like some "memento mori" of our civilization.

Graduated from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, he has been the recipient of several prizes, including the "Groene Prijs" from the Gemeentemuseum.

Nothing here is overblown or overwhelms you. Like the wooden houses, everything is on an intimate, knowable scale. There's never the same perspective, either. The works range from street-level close-ups to aerial views, further adding to this archival feel, as if a different person made each document.